According to new research from the National Institutes of Health and Ohio State University, drinking two or more caffeinated beverages within a few weeks before conception can increase the risk of miscarriage until it is difficult to get offspring. These results apply equally to women and men.

In the findings published by the journal Fertility and Sterility, researchers involved 344 couples who underwent pregnant programs from Michigan and Texas who participated in the Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment (LIFE) study.

Couples lifestyle factors, such as cigarette use, caffeinated beverage consumption, and multivitamin use, were tracked along with pregnancy health from weeks before conception until the seventh week of pregnancy.

At the end of the study, 28 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage. The researchers found a link between caffeine intake and an increased risk of miscarriage.

The researchers noted that if a woman or her partner drinks more than two cups of caffeinated drinks a day before conception, they are almost 75 percent more likely to have a miscarriage than a caffeine-free couple.

“Caffeine consumption during preconception in men is strongly associated with miscarriage like caffeine consumption in women,” says Germaine Buck Louis, Ph.D., lead author of the study.

“Although women who take daily multivitamins with doctors’ recommendations before conception experience a 55 percent decrease in the risk of miscarriage, caffeine consumption should be reduced by couples who are still trying to conceive.”